Article Tools

Almost five years ago, a federal judge sent Bob Mellow to prison, and sitting in prison clearly changed the former state Senate Democratic leader.

On Nov. 30, 2012, U.S. District Judge Joel Slomsky sentenced Mellow to 16 months and tacked on a plethora of fines, restitution and three years of probation.

Mellow sounded repentant, uttering his first public words on his guilty plea to a federal conspiracy charge centered on his use of Senate staffers to do campaign work and filing a false tax return.

“I’m extremely sorry for what has taken place,” Mr. Mellow said that day.

His voice shook as he faced a courtroom full of his family, friends, and other supporters whose presence he noted.

“I’m embarrassed and ashamed of what has taken place,” Mellow said. “I’ve let them down, and I’m very, very sorry, and I will be for the rest of my life.”

He did not say he was sorry for what he actually did.

In his formal written guilty plea, Mellow acknowledged he “knowingly caused and permitted through willful blindness” what happened, but it is painfully clear now that he doesn’t think he did anything wrong.

It’s all in his self-published book, “Used, Abused, & Forgotten, Bob Mellow: A Targeted Senator,” which came out last year.

A state pension board basically agreed with The Target last month and restored Mellow’s $246,123-a-year pension — he gets $138,958; his ex-wife, Diane, $107,165.

Using the loophole that Mellow’s lawyer, Sal Cognetti, concocted, the State Employees Retirement System board, in a 6-5 vote, acted as if Mellow did nothing wrong, even if it didn’t say he did nothing wrong. If pensioners do nothing wrong, they keep their pensions. Convicted state pensioners with good lawyers get to keep their pensions, too.

In his book, Mellow calls the tax charge “fabricated” and both charges “frivolous.” He says he only pleaded guilty because Assistant U.S. Attorney Fran Sempa threatened him with a racketeering charge and he faced a long prosecution from an overzealous prosecutor.

“I was the pure victim,” he wrote in the book, no longer sounding so “embarrassed and ashamed.”

He says the tax charge stemmed from nothing more than his accountant’s use of an incorrect depreciation schedule for the building that housed his local office. Happens all the time, “a technical violation,” he says.

That office building, 524 Main St., in Blakely’s Peckville section, was owned by Brad Inc., a company his ex-wife half-owned with a friend before Mellow got her share in their divorce. Officially, Brad Inc. got the state’s rent money, but we all know who really got it.

“I was never accused or charged with bribery or extortion because I never engaged in those activities. If I had, I would be a very wealthy man today,” Mellow wrote. “If I were a corrupt senator during my 40 years in office, I could have tens of millions of dollars hidden somewhere in an offshore bank account. During those 40 years, I was responsible for the construction of many large projects.”

Who needs bribes when you can funnel the state’s rent money to your wife?

The state Ethics Commission said the state paid at least $231,000 in rent on that building during Mellow’s last decade as a senator, even though the commission warned him in 1989 he couldn’t rent from himself. He did it anyway. The building was in his wife’s name, though she said she didn’t know anything about it. It was as if Mellow thought funneling state money to his wife somehow kept him from breaking the Ethics Law, which says you can’t use your official position to benefit your immediate family.

The Ethics Commission let him settle with a $21,000 fine without admitting he broke the Ethics Act, which he helped write in the 1970s. No kidding — he helped develop the Ethics Act.

Now we know why he agreed to the $21,000 fine without admitting wrongdoing. He had the big payday, the pension, still out there.

If Mellow admitted violating the Ethics Act, maybe the pension board would have had an even better reason to deny his pension, which it did before he appealed.

The majority pension board opinion that restored Mellow’s pension said the federal conspiracy charge was comparable to the state crime of theft by deception, which would have required Mellow to “actually obtain money and property of the Senate.” The federal conspiracy charge never said he took any money so he should get his pension, the board ruled.

If Mellow admitted getting state rent money for his Senate office, then maybe he “actually obtain(ed) money and property of the Senate.”

What happened here looks perfectly obvious now. As soon as Mellow understood the feds would nail him, he set out to save his pension.

You can understand now Mellow’s willingness to plead guilty to federal charges that never accused him of taking money. Maybe he didn’t want to tarnish his legacy and look like bribe-taking former Lackawanna County Commissioner Robert Cordaro, but more likely he just wanted to preserve the loophole that saved his pension.

Confess to a “frivolous” crime, serve a little time and live on the taxpayer’s dime the rest of your life.

We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.